Some Pittsburgh software training centers have established Boot Camps to provide intensive training in Linux and programming languages like PHP and Python.

IT and software jobs are high paying jobs and training in new technologies are useful in earning more.

There's good money in IT with pay starting at $35,000.

With just a few years of experience, IT professionals move up into the $65,000-$75,000 salary bracket.

Linux Job Market

In recent years, one of the biggest opportunities in the IT sector is in Linux.

A new report from the Linux Foundation and Dice is very bullish on job opportunities for Linux professionals.

Key findings of Linux Foundation-Dice report:

Most hiring managers intend to hire Linux professionals in the next six months. With new Linux-based systems, projects and products constantly emerging, recruiting the right talent remains a priority with employers. Nine out of 10 hiring managers and IT recruiters plan to hire Linux talent relative to other skills areas in the next six months.

Open cloud platforms are boosting demand for Linux professionals with the right expertise. 42% of hiring managers say experience in OpenStack and CloudStack will have a major impact on their hiring decisions, while 23% report security is a sought-after area of expertise and 19% are looking for Linux talent with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) skills.

Linux-certified professionals are especially well positioned in the job market this year, with 44% of hiring managers likely to hire a candidate with Linux certification, and 54% expecting either certification or formal training of their SysAdmin candidates.

More developers and SysAdmins are learning Linux as companies are getting even more aggressive about rolling out Linux-based systems and devices to support cloud, mobile and embedded, and emerging areas such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN).

Once you have Linux Mint or Ubuntu on the USB drive, you can then boot with it and run it off the USB drive or DVD (it will of course run a little slow). For faster performance, install Linux in a partition on your laptop or desktop, through virtualization or as a full install on an old PC that you can get off Craigslist or eBay.

If you select the virtualization option, set up the free VirtualBox software on your computer and then install one of the Linux distributions as a virtual machine. A big plus of VirtualBox is that it runs on Windows and Mac systems too.